A cover letter, an application form and a set of supporting pages often need to become one attachment. At other times, you need just a few pages from a long document. Choose the page tool before choosing the files: merging combines files, splitting makes separate files, and extracting keeps selected pages together.
Choose the page tool that matches your result
- Merge PDF combines at least two PDFs. Pages from the first file come before pages from the second.
- Split PDF creates separate PDFs inside a ZIP. Leave the page groups blank to create one file for every page.
- Extract pages saves a selection in one new PDF, such as the two pages you need from a report.
- Organize PDF lets you reorder, duplicate, remove and rotate pages in a single document.
Assemble a PDF in the right file order
- Open Merge PDF and choose your source PDFs. The PDF tools accept up to 50 MB per file, up to 100 files and 200 MB in one selection. Your browser's memory can impose a lower practical limit.
- Use the up and down arrows beside each filename to arrange the files. For an application, put the cover letter first, the form second and supporting pages last. Filenames do not determine the final order.
- Click Merge PDF. When the result is ready, use Download PDF to save a new copy. Your original files are not overwritten.
- Open the downloaded copy and check the transition between each source file. If an individual page is in the wrong position, open the combined result in Organize PDF.
Use page ranges without losing the page you need
The tool uses one-based page positions: the first page is 1, even if its printed footer says something else. A cover sheet might shift every printed page number by one. Use the preview to identify the actual PDF page position.
In Split PDF, enter 1-3;4-6 in Page groups to create two PDFs. The semicolon separates output files; a hyphen selects a continuous range. In Extract pages, 1,3-5 keeps pages 1, 3, 4 and 5 together in one output. In Organize PDF, an order such as 3,1,2,2 moves page 3 to the beginning and includes page 2 twice.
Check more than the first page
Compare the final page count with the expected total. Check page orientation, any empty separator sheets and the final page of each section. Rebuilding a document can affect document-level features, so check form fields, bookmarks and existing signatures rather than assuming every feature survived a page operation.
Merging does not turn image scans into searchable text. Use OCR PDF separately if you need English print recognition. It also does not guarantee a smaller attachment. If file size is the problem, read the compression guide before flattening the document into page images.